Epidemiological and animal studies often find that higher social status is associated with better physical health outcomes, but these findings are by design correlational and lack mediational explanations. In two studies, we examine neurobiological reactivity to test the hypothesis that higher social status leads to salutary short-term psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses. In Study 1, we measured police officers' subjective social status and had them engage in a stressful task during which we measured cardiovascular and neuroendocrine reactivity. In Study 2, we manipulated social status and examined physiological reactivity and performance outcomes to explore links among status, performance, and physiological reactivity. Results indicated that higher social status (whether measured or manipulated) was associated with approach-oriented physiology (Studies 1 and 2) and better performance (Study 2) relative to lower status. These findings point to acute reactivity as one possible causal mechanism to better physical health among those higher in social status. © The Author(s) 2013.

Abstract: Sexual minority is an umbrella term used to describe individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer and/or engage in sexual behavior with individuals of the same sex or gender. Drawing on previous models (Hatzenbuehler, 2009; Major et al., 2013; Meyer, 2003; Ryan et al., 2017) and social psychological theory, this article outlines the social and health consequences of the stigma associated with being a sexual minority and the societal, social, and intrapersonal factors that might lead to these health and social disparities. We highlight key responses to stigmatization such as physiological responses, affect, and behavioral reactions that may contribute directly and/or indirectly to health outcomes. In doing so, we propose that the stigma of sexual minority identity, manifested at multiple levels, is associated with disparities in health and social outcomes and that social psychology can provide a useful lens to begin to reduce health disparities.

We examined individuals' tendencies to exaggerate their positive responses toward stigmatized others (i.e., overcorrect) and explored how overcorrection, because of its fragile nature, could be disrupted. The first 2 studies demonstrate overcorrection: White participants paired with Black partners (Experiment 1A) smiled, laughed, and showed more positive behavior than those paired with same-race partners. Experiment 1B replicated the general effect with a physically stigmatized sample (i.e., facial birthmarks) and then demonstrated that overcorrection is moderated by bias; participants who exhibited more positive behavior toward their partner showed the most physiological "threat" during a stressful task with their partner. We then examined the idea that if overcorrection requires cognitive resources and is effortful, then it may be fragile when resources are taxed. In Experiments 2 and 3, we observed that overcorrection was easily disrupted when resources were compromised (e.g., with stress or cognitive load). Taken together, these studies suggest that positive biases toward stigmatized and outgroup members are fragile and can be undermined when resources are taxed.

Disgust reactions can be elicited using stimuli that engender orogastric rejection (e.g., pus and vomit; core disgust stimuli) but also using images of bloody injuries or medical procedures (e.g., surgeries; blood [body] boundary violation [B-BV] disgust stimuli). These two types of disgust reaction are presumed to be connected by a common evolutionary function of avoiding either food- or blood-borne contaminants. However, reactions to bloody injuries are typically conflated with reactions to the potential pain being experienced by the victim. This may explain why the two forms of "disgust", although similarly communicated (through self-report and facial expressions), evince different patterns of physiological reactivity. Therefore, we tested whether the communicative similarities and physiological dissimilarities would hold when markers of potential contamination in the latter category are removed, leaving only painful injuries that lack blood or explicit body-envelope violations. Participants viewed films that depicted imagery associated with (a) core disgust, (b) painful injuries, or (c) neutral scenes while we measured facial, cardiovascular, and gastric reactivity. Whereas communicative measures (self-report and facial muscles) suggested that participants experienced increased disgust for core disgust and painful injuries, peripheral physiology dissociated the two: core disgust decreased normal gastric activity and painful-injury disgust decelerated heart rate and increased heart rate variability. These findings suggest that expressions of disgust toward bodily injuries may reflect a fundamentally different affective response than those evoked by core disgust and that this (cardiovascularly mediated) response may in fact be more closely tied to pain perceptions (or empathy) rather than contaminant-laden stimuli.

Social rank in human and nonhuman animals is signaled by a variety of behaviors and phenotypes. In this research, we examined whether a sartorial manipulation of social class would engender class-consistent behavior and physiology during dyadic interactions. Male participants donned clothing that signaled either upper-class (business-suit) or lower-class (sweatpants) rank prior to engaging in a modified negotiation task with another participant unaware of the clothing manipulation. Wearing upper-class, compared to lower-class, clothing induced dominance--measured in terms of negotiation profits and concessions, and testosterone levels--in participants. Upper-class clothing also elicited increased vigilance in perceivers of these symbols: Relative to perceiving lower-class symbols, perceiving upper-class symbols increased vagal withdrawal, reduced perceptions of social power, and catalyzed physiological contagion such that perceivers' sympathetic nervous system activation followed that of the upper-class target. Discussion focuses on the dyadic process of social class signaling within social interactions.

Mere observation of others experiencing stress is often sufficient to evoke stress vicariously, especially when people try to understand the situation from the viewpoint of others. Here, we tested whether and how the experience of vicarious stress, facilitated by perspective-taking, would influence individuals' affective and motivational reactions to an upcoming experience of firsthand stress-when they themselves encounter the same stressor in the future. Participants viewed a video clip of another participant undergoing a stressful task (a speech task), after being randomly assigned to take either a first-person perspective of the person (perspective-taking condition; n = 45) or maintain a detached, third-person, observer perspective (objective condition; n = 46). Subsequently, participants were given a surprise speech task and asked to prepare for their own speech for 2 minutes, during which their cardiovascular responses were assessed to differentiate motivational states of challenge or threat. Compared to participants in the objective condition, those in the perspective-taking condition perceived higher levels of stress in anticipation of giving a speech. The heightened stress appraisals, in turn, were associated with a more adaptive pattern of cardiovascular reactivity to the firsthand (relative to vicarious) stressor, characterized as challenge responses (an increase in cardiac output and a decrease in total peripheral resistance). These results suggest that perspective-taking enhances sensitivity to vicarious stress, which in turn, may facilitate preparedness for future stressors. Discussion centers on the functional adaptiveness of vicarious stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Social acceptance (vs. rejection) is assumed to have widespread positive effects on the recipient; however, ethnic/racial minorities often react negatively to social acceptance by White individuals. One possibility for such reactions might be their lack of trust in the genuineness of White individuals' positive evaluations. Here, we examined the role that oxytocin-a neuropeptide putatively linked to social processes-plays in modulating reactions to acceptance or rejection during interracial interactions. Black participants (N = 103) received intranasal oxytocin or placebo and interacted with a White, same-sex stranger who provided positive or negative social feedback. After positive feedback, participants given oxytocin (vs. placebo) tended to display approach-oriented cardiovascular responses of challenge (vs. threat), exhibited more cooperative behavior, and perceived the partner to have more favorable attitudes toward them after the interaction. Following negative feedback, oxytocin reduced anger suppression. Oxytocin did not modulate testosterone reactivity directly, but our exploratory analysis showed that the less participants suppressed anger during the interaction with their partner, the greater testosterone reactivity they displayed after the interaction. These results survived the correction for multiple testing with a false discovery rate (FDR) of 20%, but not with a rate of 10 or 5%. Discussion centers on the interplay between oxytocin and social context in shaping interracial interactions.